Thursday, May 29, 2008

Holy man, are the new washer and dryer nice. WOW. I practically flew home today, just wanting to get home and do the laundry.

It is SO NICE that they are up off the floor and we don't have to bend over to get stuff out of the dryer. Nor do we have to half crawl into the washing machine to get stuff out of it.

And quiet? Oh yeah. So quiet that I took the phone in the laundry room tonight and talked on it while the washer was going. And my dad couldn't hear the machines at all.

I'm so glad we got the pedestals--the drawers are deep and hold so much. I cleaned out the little cabinet we had in there and we have room to spare.

We did two loads of laundry tonight--the "work clothes" and the sheets. Both were long overdue. The w/d now have Braille labels on them, a W for "work clothes" and an E for "everything else". The only trouble (if you want to call it that) we ran into was trying to measure detergent so high up on top of the machines. So we've rectified that by measuring near the sink and then walking the detergent over. I think we have the capacity for spillage regardless, so I'm still working on a solution. I was happy that Tide makes the same scent and type of detergent as we were using with the old washer for the new one.

As for the old washer, I suppose it has gone the way of all good things. The dryer was picked up by a dude called Ed, who came last night. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it, but after we got it outside, he literally picked that thing up singlehandedly and lifted it up and over the side of his utility trailer and settled it right in. I was happy he got it--he mentioned that he and his wife have a young one at home who goes through a LOT of clothing and their dryer had gone out on them. Freecycling feels so good. And he swapped us 2 dozen fresh eggs off his farm for it. I don't know what I'll do with them, but I tell you one thing: those eggs are BEAUTIFUL. All different colors. I need to take a picture of them. They're gorgeous.

This weekend should be pretty quiet. I refuse, REFUSE, to think about work. Seriously, the most demanding people have been riding my rear end today. I had one lady call me because every time her magnifier breaks, a teacher has always gone to help her put it back together. So I offered to go tomorrow morning at 9am and she didn't want me to come that early. So I said, "Ok, I can come next Wednesday then." Well that didn't suit her either. so finally, I just had to say "9am tomorrow or Wednesday morning, I don't have any other times available to you." Suddenly tomorrow morning looked real good. Another guy keeps on calling me about his merchandise, when is his merchandise going to arrive? Well, look here, pal, it's not like I'm a dealer. I put the order in, it gets here when it gets here. So I've dug around in my stash and I'm just going to get rid of some stuff and replace it later. And then I had another woman calling me--she got lost taking her mom to the doctor on Tuesday and they missed their appointment. And she only has off on Mondays (which are my office days and I'm not on the road) and so she wants to go on a Monday. I patiently explain that I cannot go on a Monday, but she's insistent, so I'm like "I'll see what I can do." and hang up. I fully intended to call the doctor on Monday to set it up, but she calls back 3 hours later and demands to know why she hasn't heard from me.

Ummmm, let's see here. In addition to opening 2 cases today, I have to finish all the clean-up paperwork from the seminar we had last week. I don't have time right now. I will call on Monday. "Well we need to know" blah blah blah. FINE. So I call the eye doctor's office and lo and behold, the doctor does not see patients on Mondays.

So, I pushed the appointment back a week anyway to give myself a little breathing room and now she's going on June 25th. But that actually works out better for her since she can have more time to rearrange her work schedule. Despite the fact that I offered to drive her mother myself so she wouldn't have to take time off.

My caseload currently stands at 52. My boss has offered to look at the situation yet again. If I just had a couple days to get my paperwork in hand, I could probably deal with it better. Unfortunately this seminar really threw a wrench in the works.

I'm really ready to just throw my hands in the air and say, "Let the chips fall where they may, I'm finished." Unfortunately, we have bills to pay. And I kinda like my house.

So we'll have to see. Hopefully things will ease off a bit.

On the plus side, LOST was frigging AWESOME tonight. Did anyone watch? Anyone want to chat?? Holy cow. I don't know how I'll wait for the next season. Amazing.

Monday, May 26, 2008

So last night, Michael decides to do the laundry, which is cool, seeing as it's his job and all. Only, when he starts, a cool puddle of water starts seeping from the washer.

Not good.

So we call a repairman, who comes over today and charges us 60 dollars for the privilege of telling us that our washing machine's main seal has "shit the bed" (as they so quaintly say in New England), and we might as well buy a new washer.

Fortunately, this was a good time to buy appliances--every major store was having appliance sales this weekend.

We decided to go high efficiency and do our part to save the environment, plus, if I am not mistaken, the washing machine is eligible for a tax deduction.

Unfortunately for us, however, the majority of the displays are digital! And that is not going to fly with the General doing the laundry around here.

We finally found a Bosch w/d set, high efficiency, the price was right, and had accessible controls. So we snapped them up along with the pedestals so no more bending down :) They arrive on Thursday.

I'm so excited to get them. At least temporarily, I might actually fight the General to do the laundry :)

Saturday, May 24, 2008

This morning, I roused myself out of bed at 6:00am and at 6:30 stepped through the front doors of my first Weight Watchers meeting. It was slightly terrifying and the group leader was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much of a morning person, but they managed to make me laugh, which was good considering where I'm starting from and where I'm looking at going even for my initial 10% goal.

I'm sitting here debating between the core and the points business. I'm leaning towards the points only because it feels a bit more structured and I feel like I need some structure. On the other hand, the muffin I am eating for breakfast just turned out to be 5 points. But at least, I get to eat a muffin.

I think it's probably going to be tremendously boring for you all to listen to me blog about being on Weight Watchers, so I'll just keep a little running total to the side somewhere when I begin to REMOVE weight, not lose it (the instructor says we always start looking for what we lose). And we'll see how it goes. My mind is a whirlwind "But I have book club!" "but I have Judy's wedding reception!"

Yeah, but I also have the whole rest of my life to live. And I'd like to see it last a while.

So wish me luck. I officially start tomorrow with the counting and portioning and so forth.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

So, work is kicking my ass, handing it to me to hold, and kicking it again.

We were informed last year that we had to have a conference in the coming fiscal year for senior citizens. The conference, we decided, would be the week before Memorial Day so we could use Memorial Day weekend to relax and recover. Well, this week is the week before Memorial Day. The conference is upon us.

So due to some of the personalities involved, I offered to coordinate the whole thing. I can't really comment publicly on it too much, but let's just say that the entire rehabilitation team is just this side of completely freakin' insane to begin with, and then we look at the component parts and just scratch our heads.

Well, so I figured if we wanted it done right, I should probably do it. Which has left the rest of my team thinking like Alfred E. Neuman.

Yesterday we went and did a lot of the supply shopping we needed to do, and there is still more to do on Monday, but I'm not participating in that, because I don't need groceries, since I am signed up to teach flower arranging. However, we had a marathon run in with WalMart trying to establish our tax exempt status, we had a hell of a time trying to work out the schedule so that everyone was happy, then we discover that the program coordinator for the state has decided to come up for the entire thing, we have to finalize catering, we have to go to the site where we're holding this shindig to get set up, and everyone else is like "Meh, it'll get done."

In the meantime, my new referrals are mounting like the national debit--I am currently 7 behind in openings, and just got 6 new referrals from Richmond. I have about 10 closures to do. And the week after this conference, I will spend every single day driving to Charlottesville for eye doctor appointments. Meanwhile, I have clients breathing down my neck, "Why haven't I seen you?" "where's my equipment?" "What's the hold up?" "Why is this taking so long?"

There are currently 60 of you and there is 1 of me. That's why it is taking so long.

So in short, I have no idea when the hell I'm going to get my paperwork done, when the hell I'm going to get things ordered, which is only going to back me up that much further and life is hell right now at work.

Downtime on the weekends? Hahahahahaha In addition to helping my sister with her wedding, I am busy putting furniture together, meeting with people to do some repairs to our house, attempting to meet up with friends who must think I hate them any more, and of course grocery shopping, car inspection, runs to the dump, cooking, taking care of the rabbit, and trying to coordinate our annual summer getaway plans.

Now throw into the mix that The General and I have just found out that we can't have babies, my sister who never wanted to have kids has found out she is having a baby, every other woman I know is pregnant or has a baby, and as a friend recently suggested to me rather pointedly, no one seems to give a flying f*** about this fact... Add in the fact that the dentist is now calling because there is a foul up with our dental somewhat-insurance and they want to straighten it out or want some money, and I'm just to a point where it's like, here's where we separate the girls from the women and I'm not so sure I want to be a woman any more.

It's all just adding up. I'm not sleeping. Last night, I fell asleep at 1:30 and I was up this morning at 6:00. The night before, I got roughly 4 hours of sleep. I think I am losing my ability to see the forest for the trees here.

The one bright spot in all of this is that I have a phone interview on Monday. I hope it goes well and leads to an in-person interview. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

So hopefully after a couple of weeks, I will be back to running the streets again like always and until then, I will beg patience. I want to wish Russell and Mrs. good luck on Weight Watchers--I'm just catching up on that happening--and Nicole luck on her new house and Lauren luck with her gym schedule and Cindy luck with Alex being under the weather and Jacalyn luck on finding her camera and Annette luck on getting unburied from work too, and everyone else luck with anything they might need. I'm not ignoring you, I promise, I just need to unbury myself for a couple of more weeks... :)